The present invention relates generally to caps for providing antimicrobial protection to an IV access port or other type of device having a female luer connection. In particular, the caps of the present invention can be used to distribute an antimicrobial solution within the intraluminal space of a female luer device.
Currently, there are various products available for capping a port of an intravenous device (e.g. a catheter or other infusion device). In this specification, port will be used generally to describe any type of connector for interconnecting two devices. For example, FIG. 1 generally illustrates a port 100 that is configured as a female luer lock connector, while FIG. 2 generally illustrates a port 200 that is configured as a needleless female luer connector. Typically, a needleless connector employs a valve that seals the lumen of the device from the exterior environment and which is pierced or otherwise separated by a male connector to obtain access to the lumen.
In this specification, a female luer connector should be interpreted as any connector having an internal lumen that is tapered to conform to a corresponding male connector having the same or similar degree of tapering. These female luer connectors can include luer lock and luer slip (or non-lock luer) connectors.
Intravenous devices can employ ports to provide quick access to a patient's vasculature. These ports also enable the device to remain within the patient's vasculature even when no access to the vasculature is needed. When a port of an intravenous device is not in use, it is desirable to maintain the port clean and free from bacteria and other microbes. If the port becomes contaminated with microbes while not in use, it is possible that the microbes will be flushed into the patient's vasculature once the port is again used for accessing the patient's vasculature. Accordingly, maintaining a sterile port is essential to minimize the risk of infection.
To maintain the sterility of a port, various types of caps have been designed. These caps typically contain an antimicrobial solution that is applied to the exterior surfaces of the port when a cap is attached to the port. For example, some caps employ an alcohol-soaked material that is disposed within the cavity of the cap so that the material scrubs the exterior surfaces of the port when the cap is screwed on. Once screwed on, these caps can retain an amount of the antimicrobial solution around the exterior surface of the port to ensure that the exterior surface remains sterile until the cap is removed.
These caps have proven to be effective for disinfecting the exterior surfaces of the port. However, current designs only disinfect the exterior surfaces. Any microbes that may exist within the intraluminal space will likely remain even after these current caps are used.
Alternatively, to address this risk of infection, some ports are configured to have antimicrobial coatings on the intraluminal surfaces. With such coatings, the intraluminal surfaces can remain sterile even if microbes come in contact with the surfaces. These coatings can also dissolve into the fluid within the lumen to effectively spread antimicrobial agents throughout the lumen. However, there are various drawbacks to using antimicrobial coatings on the intraluminal surfaces of ports. For example, ports that employ antimicrobial coatings are significantly more expensive to produce. As a result many facilities choose not to use them. Also, for a coating to be effective, it must retain its antimicrobial properties for at least the amount of time that the port could possibly be used (e.g. up to 7 days). To accomplish this, relatively thick coatings or highly concentrated coatings are used. This causes the concentration of antimicrobial agents to be very high during the initial usage time which poses a toxicity risk.